The Association for Behavior Analysis International® (ABAI) is a nonprofit membership organization with the mission to contribute to the well-being of society by developing, enhancing, and supporting the growth and vitality of the science of behavior analysis through research, education, and practice.

Abstract: This symposium will examine procedural and content domain advances in stimulus equivalence-based instruction (EBI). The first study evaluated the effects of training specific foreign/native language relations on the emergence of untaught relations with two young children (i.e., foreign-language tact, auditory (foreign language word)-visual (pictures) conditional discrimination, foreign-to-native intraverbals, and native-to-foreign intraverbals). Both participants acquired nearly all emergent relations. The second study evaluated the effects of a fading procedure on equivalence classes formed with either the simple-to-complex or simultaneous protocols. The probability of forming equivalence classes was nearly identical across both protocols, suggesting that the fading procedure plays a significant role in promoting equivalence class formation since the simultaneous protocol is typically weak at promoting class formation. In the third study, EBI was used to teach equivalence classes consisting of stimuli representing science and pseudoscience to college students. All participants formed the classes and responding generalized to both oral and written tests. Finally, in the last study, logical fallacies were taught to college undergraduates with either equivalence-based instruction, self-instruction, or no instruction, in a pretest-train-posttest group design. EBI resulted in superior class formation with shorter instructional duration than self-instruction and no instruction.

Abstract: Recent research has utilized equivalence-based instruction to teach a foreign language vocabulary, which may result in emergence of untrained foreign language relations. The current study systemically replicated Petursdottir and Haflidadottir (2009) by evaluating the effects of training specific relations on the emergence of untaught relations for 1 pre-kindergarten and 1 first grade student. The 4 relations evaluated included: foreign-language tact, auditory (foreign language word)-visual (pictures) conditional discrimination, foreign-to-native intraverbals, and native-to-foreign intraverbals. We assigned 3 different stimuli to each relation and assessed the untaught relations of each stimulus set prior to and after training. We also assessed participants’ preference for learning conditions using a concurrent chains procedure. Both participants acquired all relations (with the exception of 1 relation in 1 set for 1 participant) and exhibited the highest levels of emergence when taught relations that required them to vocalize the Spanish word. One participant preferred the foreign-language tact condition. The other participant preferred the auditory-visual conditional discrimination condition. The results of this study suggest that foreign language teaching procedures requiring the learner to speak the foreign word is an efficient means to teach multiple foreign language relations.

Teasing Apart the Effects of Training Protocol and a Fading Procedure: A Follow-up

JULIA BRODSKY (The Graduate Center, City University of New York), Daniel Mark Fienup (Queens College, City University of New York)

Abstract: Previous research has demonstrated that the simple-to-complex (STC) protocol promotes equivalence class formation better than the simultaneous (SIM) protocol. Brodsky and Fienup (in preparation) also found that a fading procedure during conditional discrimination training produced greater fluency and the highest probability of passing derived relations probes on the first attempt, but the relative effects of the fading procedure and the training protocol (STC) are unknown. The purpose of this study was to tease apart these effects. In Experiment 1 the fading procedure was evaluated both using the STC protocol and using a SIM protocol with STC testing phases after all conditional discriminations were trained (called a hybrid protocol). In Experiment 2, the fading procedure was evaluated using both the STC protocol and a traditional SIM protocol. Across both studies, the probability of forming equivalence classes was nearly identical across STC, SIM, and hybrid protocols, suggesting that the fading procedure plays a significant role in promoting equivalence class formation. Additionally, fading with the SIM protocol required less time to form classes than STC. Thus, using a fading procedure in conditional discrimination training moderates the effects of training protocol and makes the SIM protocol, which is otherwise inferior, more efficient.

Using Stimulus Equivalence-Based Instruction to Teach College Students to Identify Scientific and Pseudoscientific Characteristics

Abstract: The present study evaluated the use of equivalence-based instruction to teach two classes of stimuli representing science and pseudoscience. Computerized equivalence-based instruction and multiple exemplars of stimuli were used to teach two five-member classes to 7 undergraduate students. A pretest-train-posttest design was used to evaluate the effects of equivalence-based instruction on participants’ performance on a computer-based test, as well as on both an oral, and written test (topography-based responding). Testing scores improved for most participants from pretest to posttest on the computer-based, oral and written tests in both groups. Additionally, test performance maintained one week after equivalence-based instruction was completed for most participants. The present study demonstrated that (a) equivalence-based instruction can be used to effectively teach concepts of science and pseudoscience, (b) a selection-based teaching protocol presented via a computer promoted the emergence of responses to a selection-based testing protocol and to a topography-based oral response and written formats, and (c) maintenance of the classes occurred for most participants.

Using Equivalence-Based Instruction to Teach College Students to Identify Logical Fallacies

TRITON ONG (University of the Pacific), Matthew P. Normand (University of the Pacific)

Abstract: Critical thinking is an important skill across many, if not all, academic disciplines and professional occupations. Scholars across a range of disciplines have described critical thinking as a collection of individual skills (e.g., identifying common logical fallacies) that should be directly taught, especially in traditional academic settings such as colleges and universities. However, no robust empirically-supported teaching strategies have been developed. Moreover, instructional time already is at a premium, and adding instructional content is therefore a challenge. Equivalence-based instruction, derived from basic and applied research on stimulus equivalence, has been shown to produce skill acquisition across a variety of academic domains, with some research suggesting such instruction also is more efficient than alternative approaches. This makes equivalence-based instruction an attractive strategy for teaching critical-thinking skills. For this study, identifying logical fallacies was selected as the target skill for 30 college undergraduates who received either equivalence-based instruction, self-instruction, or no instruction in a pretest-train-posttest group design. Although EBI instruction resulted in greater mean score increases with shorter instructional duration than self-instruction and no instruction; however, mean session length and Ennis-Weir Critical Thinking Essay Test scores did not differ between groups.